Rajon Rondo: ‘We let this one slip away’

MIAMI — Not even the great Rajon Rondo could save the Celtics on Saturday night, not even with his fourth triple-double of this playoff season, and a mind-blowing 23rd of his career.

How rare is Rondo? He became the first player in NBA history with two Game 7 triple doubles, scoring 22 points, dishing 14 assists and grabbing 10 rebounds in Boston’s 101-88 Game 7 loss to the Heat at American Airlines Arena Saturday night. This comes just two weeks to the night he had 18 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in Boston’s 95-85 win over the Sixers in Game 7 of the Eastern semis.

But that was hardly on Rondo’s mind after just missing out on his third NBA finals appearance in five seasons.

“Great season,” Rondo began before clarifying, “we let this one slip away. We had a lot of opportunities, and they made the 50’50 plays, and they got to the loose balls, got the offensive rebounds and made plays.”

Rondo led the Celtics with six points in the fourth quarter but the problem was Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Brandon Bass and Ray Allen combined for nine, as the C’s were outscored 28-15 in the decisive 12 minutes of the game – and the series.

“We had some great looks, Paul, Ray, myself, Kevin, we just didn’t knock them down,” Rondo said. ” What I told them earlier, they got to the loose balls, offensive rebounds and made plays and executed offensively and made great plays.”

Did the Celtics and Rondo just run out of gas?

“Nope,” he said succinctly. “We missed shots.

“We could have done a couple of things better defensively. Our rotations weren’t crisp in the pick’and’roll. We made bad decisions, overpenetration, gave up a lot of threes, two to Bosh, a couple to Battier. Give them credit. They spread the points out as a team tonight. And about five or six players scored in double digits. Give them credit. They played great tonight as a team. We just came up short.”